Stopping a cribber?

[Chardonneigh]

My ottb is a cribber and I read somewhere that horses get 'high' from cribbing and become addicted. If I stop her cribbing somehow will she eventually forget the feeling and permanently stop or will she always crib? How can I stop her from cribbing? (She has a collar that was sold with her but people have told me that they are cruel. Are there better/other ways?)

 

[Gloi]

Have you had her scoped for ulcers?

 

[HashRouge]

Hi Chardonneigh, I have a horse who is a terrible crib biter (started after an extended period of box rest as a 6/ 7 yr old) and he has had ulcers and several bouts of colic that were almost certainly linked to his crib biting. I don't own my own land or property so I simply cannot have him cribbing, as he will ruin the fencing and yard owners never want this! I also don't think it is good for his health (see the ulcers and colic!). What I have done with great success is run a strand of electric rope round the inside of any wooden fencing in his field. In my current set up, our external fencing isn't great anyway so I have to have a proper line of electric fencing within the boundary, which also works well at keeping him away from any wooden fence posts. He lives out most of the year, so this means that most of the time he basically has no surface on which he can crib.

It is notable now that when he is somewhere he could crib bite, such as his stable (which has a half-height wooden partition - perfect for cribbing) he almost never does it. I used to put cribbox on any wooden edges in his stable, but I didn't have to do that last winter (he comes in when the weather is very bad). However, what I have found is that if I let him have access to wooden fencing in the field, i.e. because I think he's forgotten about cribbing, he will eventually start doing it again, even if it takes a few months. I imagine I might notice the same if he was stabled regularly. I think it's such an ingrained habit that once he tries it again, he gets hooked (a bit like a smoker!)!

So my experience is that yes, you can stop them, but no, they probably won't forget completely. This might depend how badly they did it though - my boy was horrendous and would stand in the field/ stable cribbing for hours. I do think the collars are cruel, and I have seen some people say that it is cruel to try and stop them. However, given his ulcers and bouts of colic, I think it would have been crueller to let my boy keep on cribbing! What I can say is that since we made it impossible for him to crib, he has filled out, has had no symptoms of ulcers, and has not had a single bout of colic. He certainly seems very happy in himself, and shows no signs of stress or anxiety.

The difficulty, of course, is finding a yard where it is feasible to have the set up I describe. It's always something I would ask if I had to move yard again.